Kingdom Hearts is Insane (but we love it)

Okay, I just snuck in. I'm deep in Disney's top-secret labs where they make everything nice when Tony and I were six years old in 2002. Disney used to run this commercial for a mysterious game called Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts is the first video game. of this type Players must fight through 10 worlds with over 100 different characters from movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas Aladdin Alice in Wonderland The Lion King Hercules I get it, it's like you're controlling the movies, it seemed like the every child's dream, a video game where you can travel and visit your favorite Disney characters and worlds.

A year later, we finally got to see our friend Ryan, an older kid who lived on the street, play most of Kingdom Hearts and spend the summer watching the main characters. Sora Donald and Goofy blue are small. Small minds and we've been dying to talk about this series for a while, but at its core it's a game about friendship, specifically three friends, now obviously I'm Sora and you're Donald, and there won't be any discussion about that, but we needed to complete the trio We needed our Goofy and that's where I come in. I'm a sucker for how much Kingdom Hearts deservedly gets for its absolutely incomprehensible and messy story.

The first game is relatively simple. You are a trapped child. on an island that you and your friends have always wanted to be able to leave, but by doing so you disperse and end up going from world to world trying to find each other, you fight against enemies called heartless, you have a sword shaped like a giant key that also It is used to unlock each world, it is a keyhole. You're actually not making a very good case for simplicity. I have not finished. Eddie at the beginning of your adventure you meet Donald and Goofy, who are also looking for their friend Mickey Mouse.

Who is a king? Your friend Riku is also trying to find you, but he lets himself be drawn by the power of the Darkness, Allah, Anakin Skywalker, only instead of being drawn by an all-powerful emperor, he turns evil because of the Disney character, Maleficent, and then fights. her to death and then you fight her as a dragon and then you fight Riku who has been possessed by a guy called ansem and then you fight ansem over and over again until you can finally open the door to Kingdom Hearts, sorry but What is Kingdom? Hearts, although no one knows for sure, I think Kingdom Hearts is Life, the game was a revolutionary experience for all of us when we were kids and then we found ourselves at the release of Kingdom Hearts 2.

So imagine this, Tony and I at nine years. old and the sequel to The Greatest Game You've Ever Seen just came out. You want me to imagine that I'm a pair of nine-year-old twins. Don't put yourself in our shoes. I feel like the shoes would be great. too small, so you head to the store with your dad with your combined Christmas fortune of thirty dollars and buy Kingdom Hearts 2. On the way home, you stare at the art on the front and back of the case more excited than ever . been in your life to explore new worlds with Sora Donald and Goofy you come home, pop the disc into your PS2 and finally, ah, who is this guy?

Another dream about him. Where the hell is Sora and who are these kids? Don't know. Any of these people, I mean, it's true that they have stolen things in the city and we have a score to settle with Cipher and whoever Cipher is. We all go to the beach, maybe you forgot, but we're broke. I'm delivering mail. to a bird that makes thieves send this bird in the mail that was low, you know, oh yeah, good return, Blondie, that's the group of friends, I don't care about these people, they all talk a lot the second day, that was a whole day, how many?

There are days, if you're not familiar with Kingdom Hearts 2, they start the game with an extremely long prologue with a character named Roxas. You may not have noticed that Roxas is not one of the main characters - in fact, he has literally never been seen or mentioned until Right Now - but you may have noticed that Jesse McCartney, the hottest guy of 2005, gives him voice. Even as dumb little kids, we were able to follow enough of Kingdom Hearts 1's story to get involved. You're a cool teenager with a cool sword and being able to go to a bunch of Disney Worlds that you recognize from the movies you

love

is a surprisingly simple and brilliant concept, so going into the second game I think we were all excited to continue. where we left off with Sora in the gang and that's when Kingdom Hearts 2 comes in and says not yet, you'll have to wait a little longer.

Note that as nine year olds this took forever, you will eventually become Sora, but not before spending weeks of your childhood learning. about this anime boy and his friends and the fact that he's actually half of Sora's heart but he's in a computer simulation while Sora is cured in a big flower from the events of the first game and if you're wondering why comes out of a Big Flower, they don't tell you that in this game, so we won't tell you either, so we get it, it's a game about anime and Disney, but what playing the actual game means is reducing the game's combat to what essential.

It has two main mechanics, your first and most obvious option is to let this kid defeat his enemies with a metal rod, the other is to use magic to freeze or set fire to the bad guys, you can even call Disney characters to help you. help in fights. Also, as you progress through the game, combat expands and becomes much more complex, a little too complex to summarize, so we'll just scroll through the skills menu once you're late in the game so you'll believe us. , the great addition in Kingdom Hearts. 2 in terms of gameplay were the forms of Drive that you can access for about a minute at a time and completely change the combat.

Each one works a little differently and they all have their pros and cons. Valor hits faster, but you can. You don't do magic, wisdom has better spells and your sword turns into a weapon but the weapon sucks, meanwhile the master form is much better at everything but your pants turn yellow so it's never quite perfect . One thing I

love

about dry forms is how you are. We're encouraged to use them as much as possible, not only because they kick ass but because leveling up gives you abilities that you can use for the rest of the game - in particular, you unlock movement abilities like a dash, a double jump, and a slide, which They become absolutely crucial to have endgame bosses that can destroy you on one of the hardest difficulties.

This system of improving movement through the game is incredibly satisfying every time a game does this. It's just a chef's kiss. The old Spider-Man games on PS2 did something similar to what they did. The PS4 game did not. As you progressed through the game, you could improve your swing speed, add new combat moves, aerial tricks, and more. There's just nothing like the moment when you're playing a game with good movement mechanics and you've just updated something. like your speed or you added a double jump, you go out into an open area and try it for the first time, that happened several times in this game with your Dash Dodge jump and your slide, it feels amazing to go from this to this, the biggest draw.

What I liked most about this game as a kid was the sense of exploration it provided. They give you a spaceship. It's called a gummi ship. I know, but some people won't know what a gummy ship is. But it's not a spaceship, it's the jelly bean. ship I'm just trying to make it easier so they have to be true Kingdom Hearts says something really special with your imagination when you're a kid you use your rubber ship to fly to different worlds as a trio but you're almost never forced to go to one world, You almost always have the option to choose, each world comes with its own unique art style, UI characters and story.

You could make an entire video solely on how well the team created each individual world, especially when the source material provides such variety. in your images, for example, Nightmare Before Christmas looks amazing. I think the limitations of the PS2 and the graphics and map size match the stop-motion set of the actual movie almost perfectly. Everyone tries their best to do more justice to their source material than sticking to just one design style, this especially shows in the main characters, the team could have easily let Sora Donald and Goofy look like stock models throughout the game and no one would have questioned it, but in worlds where a normal human wouldn't. being there like The Lion King or The Little Mermaid completely change the character models The Lion King even changes the way Sora moves around the world they also turn Goofy into a turtle and make him spin around like a little monster now obviously because he's a video The game has more structure than a completely free and open adventure.

As adults, we can look at the formula a little more. The first story of most of the world contains a summary of the movie they were based on, for example, the first level of Mulan is about Mulan hiding the Ping Persona. she can go to war in her father's place or in Pirates of the Caribbean where you have to endure a terrible Jack Sparrow impression while they summarize the story mostly in text bubbles, now that I think about it, this is the only world where I didn't try make Donald and Goofy mix up. I think I'm the only one who made it back to the ship.

Well, Elizabeth. I feel like they stand out visually in the most fun way. It's probably the most ridiculous thing in the entire game. well it's not the most ridiculous thing, I mean, Goofy dies in a moment, mind you, so this is a very public moment of private grief for a family and publicly a moment where people will be taking a port all night long , thousands of people have been queuing for hours to walk past the coffin and pay their respects, fool, this is the turning point of history. Up until this point there was nothing at stake in the game, but now the characters are finally given something truly meaningful to fight for, so everyone. people who think

kingdom

hearts

is just a dumb kids game with no sense of gravity have to deal with death okay with loss oh okay wait so they just assumed he was dead and left his body there when in reality he just I was taking a nap, that's a good question, Eddie, and if you like questions, you'll have plenty more for the rest of the game.

We have mentioned before that Kingdom Hearts 1 had a fairly simple story with one or two villains, it was very easy for a child to follow Kingdom Hearts 2 is not like that at all Kingdom Hearts 2 answers the question of what if instead of two There would be between 13 and 15 villains? Yes, the game features a group named after the number of people in your organization, 13, which is cool. about these characters is that they are nobody's other characters, which means their names are an anagram of their past self as Lord Voldemort, but with an Lord Voldemortxed, now that's a threat.

I'm afraid that guy will scare me, I'm sorry, it's a scary name and I know it may seem like a lot to remember, but don't worry, you already killed five of them in the Game Boy Advance game, right? Oh, what did you do! You can't play the spin-offs because you don't own every console ever made, it's very difficult to follow this story even as adults, but as children without access to historical YouTube videos, you would have to have a PS2, a Game Boy Advance and a Nintendo. DS, Nintendo 3D DS, PlayStation Portable, Verizon cell phone, and you'd still have to take notes to understand what's going on, and some of these games were years away from release, but they contained important context for what was happening in 2005.

I know that maybe part of the reason we all identified with Sora so much as kids is because he's confused all the time too. I guess you think you can upset me by saying really random things, I just don't know Eddie and I never really got him. To see the second half of the story as kids because we got stuck on a boss and refused to lower the difficulty to make it easier on ourselves. Kingdom Hearts 2 came with three standard difficulty modes for beginners and proud that these options usually only change the amount of damage. that Sora gives and receives I just played Proud mode and especially during the first half of the game it was a real challenge.

What no, it's just, I mean, it's fun. I'm sure it was a challenge for you, I mean, it's the second one. harder mode no, I think Pride is a great starter mode, you know, if you're still learning the controls of the game or how to use a controller, I think Pride is great for you, how to use a controller for the adults in the room. It added a critical mode years later that was almost an overhaul of the game's balance. He gave Sora different abilities at the beginning and at the same time limited the amount ofdamage that could be received.

This completely changed the way the game is played for a game that allows you to Match X for almost any fight and win. Now it is almost necessary to use the full scope of the game mechanics. Magic is essential. Drive forms can save you at the last second when reloading your help. Each summon is a unique ability that can even be used at specific times. Buying and synthesizing items are important because they can give you a big boost to your stats and your party personally. My favorite thing to do is spend a ton of money on a new staff for Donald only to watch him die two seconds after each fight, anyway, every trip to a world ends with its own boss fight, which are members canonical Disney villain organization 13 or giant weirdos.

The good thing is that most of these fights have unique mechanics that mean that you are not doing the same thing over and over again, but some fights force you to use magic only during a certain phase, in some fights you have to time a command of reaction so you don't turn into a human dice block and in some fights you have to get on the hydra's back, which is a great idea. The bosses in this game give a similar feeling to beating bosses in soft games because they are legitimately challenging, especially since it is a game aimed at children.

I can't even imagine 10 year old me beating any of the bosses from the last game. Yes, needless to say, Eddie had problems. With the game playing fine, but the bosses were even challenging for real players like Drew and me. I admit it, Demick still follows me every game. Zigbar has really fast attacks and Zayax goes into Goblin mode in his final moments and yes, I know how that sounds. but those are his names, I know what I sound like and don't even get me started on Roxas. The hardest fight in the main game is when Jesse McCartney punches your pretty face and tries to extract your beautiful soul from his body, a nice little touch I think.

What really adds to the experience is the slow-motion ending screen that appears when you defeat a boss. There's no greater feeling in this game than getting your butt kicked 10 times in a row and finally seeing this freeze frame of Sora stabbing someone. she died. Look. There's also something so satisfying about having new abilities appear when you make that finishing move, as if to say you've earned it. The combat really ramps up late in the game, where you go from evenly spaced fights. from bosses to essentially a challenge of four different organization members in a row, and while these are some of the hardest fights in the game, at this point you have so many tools at your disposal that they feel so balanced and fun once you learn their moves.

Basically, I have a counter for everything and at that point it's just about timing. One thing you can't say about the game is that it lacks variety, but one thing you can say is that that's not always a good thing, there were plenty of times where all any of us wanted to do was hit guys with our big guns. sword, but the game said: hey, quick detour, what if you had to move this dresser without waking it up? What if you had to escort this monkey through a room that has seven of them? feet long, would that be fun for you?

Yeah, what if the entire Little Mermaid level from the first Kingdom Hearts was replaced by Guitar Hero's long-lost DLC? I recorded my footage with the music off so the entire minigame played almost silently which was super weird let the music move you you can do it on drums only here's the sign give it the signal Tony you really missed the hit song swim this way from The Little Mermaid we all remember swimming this way right guys oh the best song in the world. The movie looks like this. You know, I want to point out that for a game that has so much amazing and memorable music from these iconic Disney movies, the original song they came up with is terrible, but honestly, the variety of minigames combined with the frequency.

They are mixed into each world and also help create the feeling of a complete adventure throughout the game. Instead of being a game focused solely on combat, it allows you to play fun, sometimes pointless games with your favorite Disney characters, even the fact that you have to physically fly between worlds makes the universe come to life as if you weren't ending arbitrarily in all these different places from the 13 Kingdom Hearts games that have been released so far. Kingdom Hearts 2 remains the most complete, balanced and polished experience, you know, it's quite common nowadays to see your favorite characters mixed with the new Multiverse movie and video game trend, but when Kingdom Hearts launched the concept of seeing established franchises , especially Disney, interacting in an overarching story, was almost unheard of and while there is a lot to make fun of when it comes to the game's story towards the end, it really starts to refocus on the themes that made the first game so impactful for us when you boil the narrative down to its real core it's just a story about being a great friend and person to the people you love and until this video I had never beaten the game before the final cutscenes were so well done that they eliminated the confusion when trying to follow its 700 characters before and when the credits rolled.

I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the last 15 minutes actually got me a little excited. It was like closing the final chapter of my favorite book as a child. Will they agree or say something they don't? I mean, that's great, no, yeah. I am very happy that you had that experience. I feel like it's a little late, yes I like the game, but I'll be 30 next year. I'm not getting excited about a children's game. Today's video is sponsored by Ren. Say Thank You Ren ren.co is a website that makes it easy to calculate your carbon footprint and then offset it by funding a diverse mix of carbon reduction projects, such as tree planting, mineral weathering, and rainforest protection .

I really love that one of the projects is community-based. plant trees because I like to breathe and apparently they have planted over 20 million trees now, obviously a big burden of climate change on corporations changing their ways, but it might hurt to look at your own lifestyle and personal impact to be able to donate to the Fresh weather. projects, so on the website you answer some questions about your lifestyle, learn ways to reduce your carbon footprint on your own, and also support the projects I mentioned before to offset your footprint even more. Once you sign up, you receive monthly updates on the project you support.

You can also see where your money is spent with photos and details of everything, so the first 100 people who sign up using the link in the description will have 10 additional trees planted in their name and if you don't sign up using the description this frog will die this specific frog will die because of you so anyway I'll set your carbon footprint with the link in the description uh thank you so much Ren okay I'll pass oh my god I'm getting so small